Backwards
by apokfan
Summary: 2 years after series: The Wraith won. Sheppard lost. Atlantis fell. Earth was culled. And the survivors were being hunted for sport. But McKay had other plans. "How would you, Colonel, like to travel back in time?"
1. Opener

_This is my first story so chapters will probably be short_. _Sorry ahead of time_. _Enjoy__._

**BACKWARDS**

**.**

**1. **OPENER

**.**

It was like one of those really, _really_ bad B horror flicks from the '80s. The wraiths were the aliens trying to take over the world and Sheppard was the good guy leading a small ragtag team against the invaders and all the odds were stacked against them, only unlike the movies, the good guys were going to die. And they were going to _stay_ dead and there wasn't going to be any sequels because how would you have a sequel when there weren't any more people around to take part in it? Well OK, maybe the wraiths would make the sequel on the next world they culled. Sheppard could see the title now. _The Return of the Wraith from the Pegasus Galaxy_. That'd definitely be Oscar worthy. Sheppard snickered quietly to himself. Sheppard wished the wraiths believed in burial. Then he'd ask them to put _Comedic Genius_,or _Witty 'til the Very End _or something like _those_ on his tombstone. But no they just had to be the type of monsters to suck the life out of people 'til they shriveled into nothing but bones and Sheppard honestly didn't want just bones in his grave. He wanted a full body, flesh and all, dammit!

He paced in his cell angrily, hands clasped tightly behind him. The hive ship walls pulsated; annoyingly reminding Sheppard it was alive. It was a stupid and useless fact to be honest. It was stupid because ships weren't supposed to be alive. They were supposed to be man-made and therefore _not_ organic. But hive ships weren't man-made. That's what made it stupid. What made it _useless_, however, was that even knowing the vessel was on some level self-aware, it didn't help Sheppard's situation any because the _stupid_ hive ship didn't think like a person. It only cared that it was a hive ship, anything else just went flying out the window.

Sheppard glared at the passing wraith guards going about whatever business wraiths did when they weren't culling anything. He figured they'd just hibernate again like that one time Todd and his crew did while they'd been struck by Carson's retrovirus thing but apparently culling didn't make the wraiths tired, just super hungry and restless. And dang it now he was thinking about Carson again when he told himself he wouldn't. Carson wasn't part of Sheppard's small resistance group. He wondered if he'd been culled with 90% of earth or if he was found by other survivors. It was possible there were more groups hiding underground Sheppard wasn't aware of. Unlikely, but possible. He hoped there were. And he hoped everyone in his underground fort-like thing was OK. Everyone probably realized Sheppard was gone longer than he was supposed to be and were panicking right now. But he knew Zelenka could calm everyone down because Sheppard showed him how. He taught Zelenka for this moment in fact.

Zelenka did well in practice. He showed a lot of potential. And even if Zelenka couldn't handle the pressure, Lorne was there as backup. Sheppard was confident in their abilities to lead. He had to be actually, because Sheppard knew he wasn't coming back. Not this time.

And where the hell was the Daedalus with McKay?

"Unhand me this instant, you ungrateful–!"

The familiar voice drifted from just ahead of him. Sheppard snapped his head up and squinted. It couldn't be. He gripped the cell bars tightly. A man in a familiar white lab coat, flanked with two wraith guards on either side, came into view. Sheppard drew in a sharp breath when Zelenka was shoved into his cell. God freakin' damn it.

"Well what do we have here? _Doc_," Sheppard drawled.

Zelenka rose to his feet quickly but before he could say anything, Sheppard grabbed a fistful of his shirt and roughly shoved him up the wall, brown eyes glinting dangerously. "I thought I made myself clear _not_ to abandon the fort after dark. What the hell are you doing here?"

Zelenka grimaced, "To get you back obviously."

Sheppard glared up at him. "I _explicitly_ said not to come after me."

Zelenka nodded sagely, ignoring the glare. "Yes I am aware."

"If you're so aware, then why'd you come back?"

"Because it is what _friends_ do," Zelenka snapped, trembling hands clutching painfully to Sheppard's. "What ever happened to _no man gets left behind_, Colonel?"

Sheppard's lips curved into an ugly snarl as he dropped the man from the wall and backed up a few steps. "Yeah well that rule doesn't apply to me, not when I'm the one trying to save your butt!"

Zelenka furrowed his brows, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about me making a deal with the damned wraith," Sheppard said icily. "I told them I'd forfeit my life in exchange for them leaving you guys alone. And now you're freakin' here!"

"How do you even know they are not just lying to you to keep you complacent?" Zelenka demanded.

Annoyance crept up Sheppard's features because he knew exactly what Zelenka was doing right now. Zelenka was trying to get Sheppard to admit what they both already knew, that Sheppard didn't actually know if the wraiths would hold their end of the bargain, that they more probably wouldn't. But damn it, Sheppard was getting desperate here and Zelenka had to see that –that this time around, the wraiths already won and were just dragging out checkmate.

"I don't," Sheppard said finally, giving just a little.

Zelenka didn't say anything, just considered Sheppard silently, sitting against a pulsating wall on the other side of their cell. Sheppard was glad the scientist didn't have any more to say. In the stretched silence, he turned his thoughts back to the wraiths.

The worst case scenario to all this was that the wraiths wouldn't hold their end of the deal and would just kill Sheppard and Zelenka –though Sheppard's death was inevitable, it was highly plausible they wouldn't send Zelenka back –and hunt down the rest of the survivors whom were all underground at this point, which the wraiths didn't know and hopefully, just hopefully that'd buy them enough time for McKay to arrive back with the Daedalus. That is, assuming McKay didn't just ditch them here for the wraiths to eat. Sheppard admit it'd be a pretty smart move, but also downright cowardly and disloyal. And while Sheppard was aware McKay could sometimes act like a coward, he was anything _but_ disloyal.

But dang it, McKay sure had bad timings with all these 'save the world/galaxy/Atlantis' type stuff. He was one of those stupid, reluctant heroes because he would usually waste half his time or resources –sometimes even both –trying to come up with all kinds of crappy nightmarish apocalypse scenarios and scare the _shit_ out of everyone. Sheppard sometimes wondered how he could put up with McKay for so long because usually Sheppard wasn't immune to McKay's _shit_, not like how he was to pain at least –if Carson was still alive, he'd vouch.

Sheppard stretched, shaking off the numbness he felt in his feet. He heard Zelenka shift positions trying to get more comfortable. It felt like hours since Zelenka was hauled into Sheppard's cell. The scientist hadn't spoken a word since Sheppard informed him of his _deal_ with the wraiths. He figured Zelenka was still mad. In a way, Sheppard supposed he had a right to be.

Sheppard sighed and leaned his head back against the soft pulsating wall. Never in his life did he imagine he'd be sitting here in a hive ship, _waiting_, for death to claim him instead of the other way around. If he'd known ahead of time, he'd have thought to bring along his PSP.


	2. Todd

_I'm surprised and glad people are interested in the story. Time-travel in this series -in the whole star-gate franchise-intrigued me. I wished they explored more into it, especially with the ancients since those guys lived 10,000 years ago. _**  
**

**BACKWARDS**

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**2. **TODD

**.**

Sheppard was slowly dozing when he heard the soft echoing boots outside of the cell, down in the corridor. He snapped awake and was on his feet moments before two wraith guards showed up with their stunners out, carefully aimed at Sheppard. Zelenka seemed perfectly calm beside Sheppard, but the colonel wasn't fooled by the fake bravado –he could feel the _doc_ shaking slightly. He didn't say a word to the man and Zelenka didn't say anything either, just squeezed his hand a little, as he was hauled out of the cell.

He was escorted through the corridors in silence and Sheppard found that he wasn't all that surprised or disappointed by it. When they reached the main section of the ship, the guards paused, forcing Sheppard to as well. Then suddenly, one of them grabbed him by the arm and shoved him forward. Sheppard stumbled in surprise and landed on his hands and knees.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" He made to stand up quickly, rubbing his arm, and turned to glower at his assailant. The guards remained impassive as if they haven't heard Sheppard at all.

"Loud-mouthed as ever, I see, Colonel," a throaty voice said.

Sheppard twisted back around at the voice, eyes wide. He didn't realize that someone else was in the room with him until now. The wraith let out a low chuckle as he moved into the light where Sheppard could see it. "Todd," Sheppard said, numb to the bone.

The wraith dipped his head in a mock bow. He watched Sheppard carefully for a few moments, and then tilted his head, "What? Are you surprised to see me?"

"Yeah –why the hell wouldn't I be?" Sheppard said, suddenly snapping out of his stupor.

Todd only looked amused. "I'm a _wraith_, John Sheppard." Well, yeah, as if Sheppard forgot. He started to walk slowly around Sheppard, like a lion closing in on its prey. Sheppard watched him warily. "In all honesty, I'd have thought you'd be expecting me, Colonel. It was, after all, you who secretly made the deal with one of my fellow guards. It caught me off-guard when one relayed your message back to the hive," Todd admitted, pausing.

Sheppard waited, his body tensing as the wraith resumed circling around him. "Yeah well, forgive me for thinking –so arrogantly it seems –that we might have actually become mutual, ah, acquaintances after years fighting for a common goal," he spat, turning to glare at the wraith that stood behind him.

Todd laughed. "We still share a common goal, Sheppard," he said, looking at the man with interest, "but we do not share a common enemy anymore."

Sheppard stilled as Todd crept closer. He knew exactly whom the wraith was talking about. _Michael_, though nothing more than a name now, still held power over Sheppard, haunting him even from the grave. Sheppard was certain nothing could ever get rid of the shame and guilt he felt deep in his core from helping _create_ the monster. But what did it really matter? Where Michael failed in destroying the whole human race, Todd pretty much succeeded, or at least pretty much succeeded in wiping out the whole human population on earth, which was a lot, like over six _billion_ people a lot.

Sheppard clenched his hands into fists. "Yeah, whatever, just get on with it and save me the whole it's-survival-nothing-personal bull_shit_, you stupid wraiths feed to people."

Todd, at least, had the decency not to laugh. "It is true, John Sheppard. We do not do this out of spite," he said, which made Sheppard snort. Todd looked somewhat annoyed as he continued. "Have I not said before, it is because we need to eat in order to survive? Do you not eat to survive, Sheppard?"

Sheppard glared. This was such a ridiculous conversation and Sheppard wished he wasn't having it, especially with Todd. But he felt like he had to address it.

"Yes," he bit out, "but it's not the same. People _aren't_ food!"

Todd shook his head, looking sad, which made Sheppard angrier. "You still do not understand."

"No I guess I don't," Sheppard said, his tone chilling.

Todd seemed opened his mouth to say something else, but Sheppard didn't want to hear any more. He cut him off with a sharp, "Let's just cut to the chase. You promise you won't kill Zelenka or come for anyone else, right? My life for theirs –you'll leave this galaxy and return back to Pegasus. Do I have your word, Todd?"

Sheppard watched Todd pause, considering the deal. If Sheppard was to be honest with himself, Todd was the only wraith he trusted to keep his end of the bargain. Although he didn't know which wraith owned the hive ship, somewhere deep down he had always suspected it was Todd. And lo and behold, there the wraith stood. Kind of funny how the universe worked out sometimes.

"You have my word," Todd said at last. "Are you ready then, Sheppard?" His feeding hand was already extending out; palm facing Sheppard so that the Colonel could see the teeth.

Sheppard instantly tensed up and closed his eyes, jerking his head in agreement, waiting for the anticipated pain that came with wraith feeding. In a moment, he felt the front of his white t-shirt slice open so that Todd could feed from his bare chest. Chills crawled up his exposed flesh, making him shiver, making him realize then, for probably the first time since he was brought onboard, that this was real. He was really going to die this time because unlike the last time Todd fed on him, the wraith wasn't planning to stop, wasn't _going_ to stop, and that more than anything, made Sheppard scared.

And Sheppard realized he didn't want to die, that he wasn't ready to die, especially not doing anything but waiting –that wasn't Sheppard. At all. He imagined McKay standing next to him, hands on his hips, lips curled down in a deep frown, as he said, "What's wrong with you, Colonel? Since when did you take death laying face down, without even trying to fight back?" Yeah, McKay, where the heck did that John Sheppard go? Sheppard clenched his fists tightly, nails jabbing his palms, and he felt skin being ripped out, but he didn't care.

He wondered what the heck was taking Todd so long because he was really finding it difficult to stay still. A minute more and Sheppard couldn't make promises on behaving a like a good, little human for the big, bad monster to eat.

"Come on, Todd –what the hell's the hold up?"

There was a long, stretched silence and Sheppard finally sighed, sucked in a deep breath and tried to calm himself as he pried an eye open. What he saw bewildered him and he had to blink a few times to make sure he was really seeing what he thought he was seeing. "McKay?"

Doctor Rodney McKay stood in front of him, grinning smugly. "Colonel Sheppard, it's good to see you again." Todd was standing in the background, looking just as confused as Sheppard felt. McKay seemed to notice him for the first time and nodded a stiff greeting. "Todd, also."

"What the hell are you doing here, McKay?" Sheppard asked, still in a daze, not quite believing that McKay wasn't just a figment of his imagination.

McKay didn't bother to answer Sheppard. Instead, he touched Sheppard on the shoulder and spoke into his earpiece. "We're ready when you are, Colonel." Sheppard looked at McKay's hand, noticing the man had on a large looking wristwatch.

Before Sheppard could ask about it, a familiar white light enveloped both men, and in the blink of an eye, they were gone.


	3. Daedalus

_Just to let you guys know, this story has my own twist on the whole time-travel thing, though I'll try my best on trying to maintain it as canon as I can. There weren't many episodes to go by sadly._

**BACKWARDS**

**.**

**3. **DAEDALUS

**.**

"Welcome back, Doc, Colonel."

Sheppard blinked into the harsh light of the Daedalus. Colonel Steven Caldwell, seated at the head of the ship, smiled at him. McKay, standing beside Sheppard to his right, gave a slight wave and said, "Yes, yes, it's good to be back. Right, Colonel? Right, he agrees too. As always, I, or um _we_, had _incredibly_ good timing –Todd was just about to eat Sheppard, had his feeding hand out and everything. I think we gave him quite a scare when you beamed me into the ship."

Caldwell eased back in his chair and folded his hands on his lap, his gaze switched to McKay. "Well that's good because we'll soon be doing more than just scaring him. Got his coordinates locked just like you asked."

McKay grinned. "Great! That's good news."

Sheppard snapped out of his stupor, fed up with being ignored. "OK just what the hell is going on?" he spat, taking a few steps back for good measure.

McKay blinked and turned to Sheppard, as if realizing for the first time he even existed. Both his hands flew up in the air in a universal I-Surrender gesture –though Sheppard thought it was more fitting to think of it as I-Come-Peace. "Take it easy, Sheppard," McKay said, studying Sheppard closely. His hands came down once he realized Sheppard was unarmed. "We'll explain everything to you once we take care of a slight, ah, _problem_. I promise."

Sheppard folded his arms and glared. His mind was whirling and everything felt so surreal, like he was walking through a hazy dream. "What slight problem are we talking about here?" he demanded, not wanting to be pushed to the side so easily.

McKay sighed and Sheppard could hear the exasperation in his voice as he said, "We're going to destroy Todd's ship, happy?"

"What?" Sheppard gaped. "No! You can't do that –Zelenka's still in there!"

McKay's eyes went wide. "What? He is? And you're just telling me this now?" The scientist hurriedly went to the back and came out with a Life Sign Detector. "This is great. Of course there'd be a setback. Whenever Sheppard's involved with something, it's never _easy_," he babbled.

And it was like Sheppard was back in the past. He shook his head, thinking some things, even McKay, would never change no matter how long time dragged on. He touched McKay lightly on the shoulder causing the man to jump in surprise. "Look, you can't blow the wraith ship up right now," he told him. "Beam me back down there and let me get Zelenka. Then you two can do what ever the hell you want. Like I told Todd, _all bets off_," Sheppard said, lost in an earlier memory.

McKay seemed to consider his proposal but shook his head. "Actually," he said, biting his lips, "there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about, Sheppard. Something bigger and _more_ important than saving Zelenka in fact. OK, that sorta came out wrong. Please just at least hear me out."

Sheppard narrowed his eyes. Something more important than Zelenka's life? His motto_ leave no man behind_ came into the forefront of his mind, burning like a hot poker. McKay must have really developed telepathy while he was away these past two years because suddenly he said something that caught Sheppard's attention, "I mean what if I told you, you could save earth _and_ Zelenka? Hell! You could save the whole Pegasus Galaxy while you're at it."

Save the whole Pegasus Galaxy? Sheppard wanted to snort and say _impossible_. But hanging in the Pegasus Galaxy for nearly seven years taught Sheppard a lot of things. One of those things was that McKay in dire situations usually brought out defying-the-impossible results.

* * *

"This is a time device," McKay said while pointing at the large wristwatch.

Sheppard exchanged skeptical looks with Caldwell as they patiently waited for McKay to continue –that was part of the deal, they listen without interruption while McKay explained his plan to save the damn universe. McKay ignored the looks. "It took me years to make it but it's fully functional," he said. Sheppard wanted to ask how he knew that for certain but that'd be interrupting and he stupidly promised McKay he wouldn't. At least McKay was able to anticipate the question without Sheppard verbally expressing it.

"Well, it wasn't exactly made by me, not in this timeline at least," McKay confessed, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he tried to explain his story. "See, my future self showed up a few days ago and gave it to me. He, ah _I_ –god that's really weird to say –said that I made it in a time dilation field where time travels relatively slower, not that I really need to explain that to you, Colonel."

Sheppard nodded, remembering the time where he almost ascended. He folded his arms and gave McKay a dubious look. McKay's story seemed to be full of holes and it wasn't like the scientist. Not that time-travel was entirely impossible. Ancients apparently could do anything they wanted with all these gizmos of theirs. He eyed the _time device_ attached to McKay's right hand –McKay really was bad at naming stuff. "Your story doesn't make sense, McKay," Sheppard said plainly. "How can future _McKay _have something that you haven't made yet?"

McKay glared at Sheppard and said in an exasperated voice, "Remember Elizabeth?" Sheppard nodded, not sure where this was headed. "When we found her future self in a pod on Atlantis –apparently she traveled back 10,000 years into the past and met the Ancients, in the future. Clearly, the Elizabeth we knew didn't do that."

"Clearly," Sheppard said, leaning back casually against the wall as McKay stared at him. "What's your point exactly?"

"Think of it this way, the universe is made of all of these infinite sets of possibilities for these infinite sets of scenarios. One Elizabeth discovered a time-travel jumper in one scenario that affected our timeline, _therefore_ affecting our Elizabeth," McKay explained.

Sheppard took a deep breath and let it out, trying to digest the information. "So what you're trying to say is that something similar happened with you."

McKay nodded. "Yes. That's exactly what I'm trying to say. At one point, I was able to make the device that you see before you and traveled back to give it to me, thus it exists here today." He looked down at the watch and took it off to show to Sheppard and Caldwell. "Now it's pretty straight-forward to work this thing. See, this button off to the side? You press just it and you can be beamed up to the Daedalus from any hive ship. I'm not exactly sure how he, I, managed to enable wraith technology with that of Asgard but it's a rather ingenious add-on, though I suspect some of Janus' model played a part –you remember when we discovered the ancient, Janus', lab, right? I sort of kept a few ah, stuff, from there so I expect he, I, did as well," McKay rambled, face flustered. "Anyway, that's for beaming and apparently, if you touch someone while wearing the time device, they can get beamed too."

Sheppard stared at the scientist in disbelief while Caldwell just looked annoyed. "McKay, just get on with it," he said.

"What? I am," McKay said. He pointed to three separate screens in the middle and tapped them each, one at a time. "Now I know you think this is a watch but these are where the two differs completely. The far left screen is the month number, the middle is the date, and the right is the year. You just turn it like so and press the large green button at the bottom and well, that's it. Time-travel is as easy as that with this _baby_." He gave the watch a firm pat and grinned at the baffled men.

"That's seriously it?" Sheppard asked, perplexed.

"Uh, yeah," McKay said.

"OK well great, we've got a mini time machine," Sheppard said after a pause. "What's your plan? Are we going to hop back in time and fix this mess then?" Wasn't that how he tried to save the galaxy last time? Only he had been in a damn stasis pod waiting for a flare.

Caldwell looked pointedly at McKay and said, "Well that sounds like a plan. How far back are we talking, doc? And it would it work the same way as the beaming –one person wears it while everyone else just hold hands or whatever?"

McKay suddenly looked dejected and Sheppard, noticing, muttered, "Oh so it's not that simple after all. Should've seen that coming. Well? Spit it out, McKay."

"Well you see, when he, _I_, gave me the device, he might've mentioned a few, ah, _things_," McKay murmured.

Caldwell rolled his eyes. "Lovely."

"Where is this guy –your future you –anyway?" Sheppard asked, casting a suspicious glance around.

McKay sighed, "Wait here. It'll only take a sec." He went over to the back and rummaged a little before coming back with a jar of ashes. Putting it gently on the ground, he said, "He's right there."

Sheppard stared down at it incredulously, "_That_? That's your guy?"

"Yeah. It seems that time-travel comes with a few rules," McKay said.

"No kidding. What happened to him?"

"It seems that you can't just jump into one timeline directly if you already exist there, without some serious repercussions. It took him, _me_, two hours before he, _I_, turned into nothing but ashes," McKay explained, gesturing to the jar.

Sheppard frowned, "Hold up, McKay. If your guy died in two hours, how come the future Elizabeth didn't when she met us?"

McKay shot Sheppard an annoyed look. "Did you not just hear what I said, Colonel? Directly. As in you can't just hop into a timeline where you already _pre_-exist. Future Elizabeth, if you remember correctly, jumped back 10,000 years ago where she didn't, thus creating her own, ah, self. In essence, Elizabeth wasn't really Elizabeth per se. Do you get it now?"

"I think so."

Caldwell looked down thoughtfully for a moment. "Well that settles it then, right? We're going. I mean, it's not like we really have anything else to do here," he said, glancing behind him toward the chair. "We're pretty screwed one way or the other."

Sheppard turned to Caldwell. "Zelenka's still there, ya know," he snapped.

Caldwell shook his head and gestured with both his hands at the ship. "Look, Colonel, we've pretty much lost this war. And it seems like the Doc is on to something here. If we can make it so that the wraith never woke up in the first place…"

"And how do you propose we do that in two hours?"

Caldwell shrugged. "Or we can go back 10,000 years and help the Ancients all we want."

"Oh there's also another problem," McKay said with a wince. Caldwell nearly groaned. "See, this device is powered with the same source as ZedPMs." He touched something on the bottom and a small compartment at the top end opened. McKay took out a miniature battery-like container. "And it's almost depleted."

Sheppard stared at it in wonder as McKay hastily slid it back into place and snapped the compartment shut. "That's a ZPM?"

McKay nodded. "Well sorta. It's pretty much the same power source, just smaller, so less quantity. And like I said, it's almost all gone, which means there's only enough power for a one way trip for only one of us."

"How wonderful," Sheppard muttered.

"There's also one more component to the device, I'd like to talk to you about." McKay pointed to a small hole above the right side screen. "See that?" Sheppard and Caldwell both nodded. "You place your pinky on it and it'll draw a small sample of your blood and from that, it stores any memory you want it to." He saw their baffled looks and quickly went on, "I'm telling you this because one of us will have to take the trip back and there's a very high probability, actually one-hundred percent probability, we'll run into our past-selves there. Now this memory enabler goes both ways. The wearer can also pull the memories stored in this out."

"Wait. A _high_ probability we'll run into our past-selves? McKay, when exactly did you program this gizmo-device…thing to take us to, or _one_ of us anyway?"

McKay grimaced and reluctantly said, "To be truthful, the time device only has enough power right now to go back up to seven years ago. In other words, Colonel, yes, the only real possibility is going back to when the entire expedition began. And since this is _Ancient _technology, only I or Sheppard can activate it in the first place."

Caldwell sighed. Somehow he expected as much. McKay wasn't done though, staring at Sheppard still and Sheppard just knew what he was going to say next. "So, how would you, _Colonel_, like to travel back in time?"


	4. Ground Rules

_I'm changing the episodes up by the way. I don't want to use the same, exact dialogue. Oh and yeah, past-Sheppard is John, future-Sheppard is Sheppard._**  
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**BACKWARDS**

**.**

**4. **GROUND RULES

**.**

McKay's plan was relatively simple when Sheppard thought about it. "Remember, Colonel, you're not interact with anyone except 'John'." McKay had taken to calling his past-self 'John' while Sheppard was 'Colonel' as to not get mixed up. Sheppard found it a little weird but didn't protest. "And even then, keep your interactions to a bare minimum. Just explain to him who you are, why you're there (the basic need to knows, Colonel), a little about the future, and hand him the device –it should do the rest. Remember you only have two hours before you, ah, you know. Just focus on the mission, and you should be fine, Colonel. I trust you. You're a soldier after all. You're, ah, good at these kinds of, um, _missions_." Yeah. Sheppard was really good at suicide missions.

"Right. So. Place your pinky like so and hold it there. You'll feel a slight tingle, like something's crawling up your spine, but don't panic. It's normal. It's supposed to happen. The device is just picking apart your memories, trying to duplicate and store all the important ones. So yeah, don't worry."

Sheppard rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it's _just_ picking through my memories, then copying and storing them for later use. I'm a computer now, McKay? Just copy and paste and that's that, huh?"

"Yes, just like that," McKay said, as Sheppard felt the last of the tingling sensations fade. "Now, pay attention here, Colonel. This is _very_ important." Of course it was. _Everything_ McKay said was important. Sheppard waited patiently for him to continue. "Now, in most movies all you have to worry about is the 'when' you want to travel to. The time machine seems to always do the rest for them. Unfortunately, Colonel, you don't get that luxury here." Sheppard frowned. Of course not. "I might be a genius but I'm no miracle worker sadly," McKay said somewhat wistfully, then straightened and looked Sheppard dead in the eye. "This is where your ATA gene plays a part. You have to imagine the coordinates, Atlantis in this case, in your head, and the exact room and spot you want to appear. The more specific you are the better."

Sheppard chewed his lip, trying to take in the new rule to time-travel. He debated on whether he should ask his question; though he had a feeling he wouldn't like the answer. "What happens if I don't imagine anything or let my thoughts wander off?"

McKay looked grim. "If you don't imagine a set coordinate, the device will drop you off anywhere you've already been, including space –only without the jumper."

Well that wasn't good. Sheppard frowned as he looked down at the device that was wrapped around his left wrist. McKay sighed. "Time-travel is very risky, I know. I wish it was as glamorous and easy as it appears in movies but this device, Colonel; it doesn't just _teleport_ you to through time. It opens up a wormhole."

Sheppard lifted an eyebrow. "It _opens_ a wormhole?"

McKay nodded. "Yes. The size of the wormhole depends on how much power the time device has. Right now, it only has enough juice to create a wormhole for three seconds."

"Just enough for someone to go through," Sheppard said. He tilted his head as he stared at McKay. "That's why you said this was a one-man mission."

McKay nodded, his face glum. "Yeah," he said softly. Sheppard waited for him to say more but McKay fell silent, as if lost in some place far away.

"So I guess this is it," Sheppard said, breaking the silence.

He heard McKay sigh, and then straighten a little. He looked at Sheppard, no longer sullen. "Make sure to set your watch," he said.

Sheppard looked down and set it. Apparently it was another rule to this time-travel thing. Sheppard was beginning to get tired of all the rules. Who would want to time-travel if there were so many things that could go wrong? The first thought that popped up into mind was 'The Doctor' in 'Doctor Who'. Sheppard grinned. He wished he had a TARDIS. Seemed much easier to travel in that instead of with Ancient technology.

"Now imagine Atlantis," McKay ordered. "And be specific. It'd be bad if you ended up in the gate room while _every_ member of the expedition going through the stargate for the first time, can see _two_ John Sheppards."

"Why can't I just talk to everyone at once?" Sheppard demanded. "They're going to see a bunch of weird stuff that the Pegasus Galaxy has to offer, including a _future_ Elizabeth Weir."

"Yes but you'll probably send some people into shock. You'll only have two hours, Colonel. Use that time wisely. I trust you," McKay said firmly.

"Of course you do," Sheppard muttered. He imagined Atlantis in his head and switched the watch on. Then he looked McKay in the eye. "It was a real pleasure, Rodney."

McKay nodded and smiled softly. "Yeah, John. It was. Good luck."

Sheppard then activated the device and a small wormhole appeared before him. He gazed around the Daedalus one last time. Colonel Steven Caldwell sat in the command chair. He turned to see Sheppard and flashed him a brief, sad smile. "Good luck, Colonel."

Yeah. Luck. They needed luck, didn't they? Sheppard disappeared into the wormhole.

* * *

**JOHN SHEPPARD** grinned as he flew the helicopter to their destination, the Antarctic Outpost. Jack O'Neill was dozing in the passenger seat beside him. John could see the beautiful, white landscape below them, stretching out as far as the eye could see. John's grin widened as he nudged the general awake. When O'Neill groaned, John couldn't help but laugh.

"We're almost there, sir," he said, pivoting the helicopter to the left.

O'Neill opened his eyes. "All I see is ice," the general complained.

"It's just over this mountain, sir," John said, still grinning.

"Oh, well that's great," O'Neill muttered, craning his neck to see. "Wake me—"

His earpiece communicator abruptly crackled to life. O'Neill lurched up, suddenly wide awake and alert. John peered at the general with intrigue. "_O'Neill? Is this General O'Neill?_"

"Yeah, this is him. Who's this?" O'Neill asked back cautiously.

"_My name is Doctor Weir. We're having a slight problem at the base_," the voice said, "_but we're trying to get it under control_."

John looked at the general anxiously having heard what the woman said. O'Neill didn't seem to notice. "What kind of a problem?"

"_There's a_," the voice hesitated, and then tried again. "_There's a drone heading your way, sir_."

"A…drone," O'Neill repeated slowly. His eyes widened as realization dawned on him. "Oh _shit_."


End file.
